MADD 15430

Most recently taught: Winter 2026

Course Description

This course surveys a particularly rich quarter-century of gaming history, in which the concept of “indie game” both gelled and evolved. As the 21st century brought an explosion in internet-based games distribution, small-scale game developers faced a definitional question: what does it mean to be “indie”? Does it describe a model of production? Or an aesthetic? (Or something in between?) From emergence of a distinct “independent style” in the late 2000s to the queer games avant-garde of the 2010s to the rise of boutique publishers such as Devolver Digital and Annapurna Interactive that dominate the scene today, this course maps the history of “independence” in games while drawing illustrative connections to earlier indie scenes in music and movies. Focal points range from individual games (Braid, Undertale, OneShot) to genres (walking simulators, cozy games) to platforms (Flash, Twine). To confront the turbulence of engaging with recent history, students will be expected to research and present on one or more games of their choosing outside the syllabus.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this class, students will:

• Understand how technological and social factors inaugurated the emergence of independent videogames in the early 2000s, and subsequent development since then
• Articulate historical parallels between rhetorics of independence in games and other media such as cinema and music, in particular the role of marginalized creators in each
• Demonstrate proficiency in historical research in the realms of source-gathering and persuasive argumentation

Assignments & Grade Distribution

Students’ final grades will be determined by adherence following expectations: 

15% Attendance and participation. Students will consistently attend play sessions and participate in class. Small, otherwise ungraded assignments and exercises (including in-class group work) will contribute to this area of the grade. Students may miss three class sessions or play sessions without penalty. Beyond that point unexcused absences will have an impact on this portion of your grade. Masking is encouraged if it will allow you to participate more fully. 

15% Canvas discussion board posts. Students will post to the Canvas discussion board a total of five times over the course of the quarter, out of a total of seven prompts. Posts should consist of 1–2 paragraphs reflecting on readings, games, or both.

15%  Gameplay experience reflections. In addition to short Canvas posts, students will be responsible for writing two slightly longer-form gameplay experience reflections at designated points in the quarter.

20% Midterm written assignment. 1200 words (3–4 double-spaced pages), due Friday, February 6. Specific prompts for this writing assignment will be circulated ahead of time.

35% Final group project. Students will undertake a final project in which they work with at least one other student, with a maximum group size of four. This project will take one of three forms:

1. A traditional term paper in the range of 4,000–4,500 words (roughly 12–14 double-spaced pages). This paper should present a well-developed and well-supported argument charting the history of an individual developer, technology/platform, genre, or development scene. For this project type you will not be expected to dig as deep or as broadly into primary and secondary research as in the dossier option below, but you should at the very least touch on games outside those included in the syllabus.
2. A research dossier consisting of a packet of primary and secondary sources that you have gathered in your research throughout the quarter, accompanied by a 1000–1600 word (3-5 page) written reflection on what you learned from these sources, what sorts of arguments your research could support, and the historiographical issues you encountered and decisions you had to make throughout the process. This assignment type will be evaluated in terms of the depth and breadth of original historical research, rather than a fully developed and defended novel argument.
3. A historiographical video essay no more than 15 minutes in length. This assignment type requires less research than the dossier, and less writing than the term paper. The tradeoff is that video essays will be expected to use visual evidence persuasively—i.e., video clips should not serve simply as visual background for an orally-delivered argument, but should serve a central role in illustrating the history of an aesthetic style, or the impact of a particular game design tool, or a trend in UI/UX design, etc.

Whatever the form of the project, or number of people involved, all groups must provide the following components:

1. An abstract of 300–400 words, due Monday, February 16 (3%)
2. A presentation serving as a preview of the project, given Week 9 (7%)
3. The final version of the project, whichever form it takes (25%)

Course Materials & Play Logistics

All required readings and most recommended readings for the course will be posted in PDF form on Canvas or linked to if already online. There is one recommended book for the course, Jesper Juul’s Handmade Pixels, available to purchase at the University of Chicago Bookstore. A portion of Handmade Pixels has been assigned as required reading (and is available as a PDF on Canvas), but additional portions are indicated as relevant recommended reading for specific days.

This course has dedicated play lab sessions most Wednesday afternoons. Regular attendance at these sessions is expected as a general rule, as the games played during them are the course’s primary texts. The course absence policy allows for three unexcused absences including class sessions and play sessions. Beyond that point unexcused absences—including at play sessions—will have an impact on this portion of your grade.

If you do miss a play lab session, you can arrange to make up almost all games played at the MADD Center. Most games will be installed on a dedicated PC held at the Weston Game Lab, with others available on other MADD Center hardware, which can be checked out during the Center’s regular hours. Physical media copies of Gone Home, Stardew Valley, Celeste, Outer Wilds, and Cult of the Lamb are also available to borrow from Crerar Library for 24-hour periods.

Although most games will be played during these dedicated play sessions, there are also a few take-home play assignments spaced throughout the quarter. The Flash games assigned for January 20^th can be downloaded for free once you’ve installed Flashpoint Infinity. The Twine games assigned for January 27 can be played in-browser. For January 29^th students are assigned to play a walking simulator of their choice out of a suite of 31 options, available for multiple platforms at multiple price points (including free)—see Canvas for details. By our February 19 class students will be expected to have played either Undertale ($10–$15, available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox) or OneShot ($10–$15, available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox). A Switch cartridge of Undertale (though not OneShot) is also available to borrow from Crerar Library for 24-hour periods.

Course Schedule

Tues, Jan 6 Class: Course Introduction

No required reading advance. However, the following two readings are recommended for general context:

• Holly Kruse, Site and Sound (2003), Ch 2 “Telling the Story of Independent Music”
• Yannis Tzioumakis, “‘Independent’, ‘lndie’ and ‘lndiewood’: Towards a Periodisation of Contemporary (post-1980) American Independent Cinema” (2013)

Wed, Jan 7 Play Session, in-person at the MADD Center

• Façade (Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern, 2005)
• The Marriage (Rod Humble, 2007)
• Passage (Jason Rohrer, 2007)
• Gravitation (Jason Rohrer, 2008)
• Braid (Jonathan Blow, 2008)

Thurs, Jan 8 Class: Artgames and Proceduralism

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Ian Bogost, How to Do Things With Videogames (2012), Ch 1 “Art”
• Felan Parker, “An Art World for Artgames” (2013)
• John Sharp, Works of Game (2015), Ch 3 “Artgames”

Recommended further reading:

• Paola Antonelli (Senior Curator at MoMA), “Video Games: 14 in the Collection, for Starters” (2012)

Tues, Jan 13 Class: Braid and the Emergence of “Independent Style”

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Simon Parkin, “Jonathan Blow: The Path to Braid” (2008)
• Taylor Clark, “The Most Dangerous Gamer” (2012)
• Jesper Juul, Handmade Pixels (2019), Ch 2 “High-Tech Low-Tech Authenticity”

Wed, Jan 14 Play Session, in-person at the MADD Center

• Cave Story (Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya, 2004)
• flOw (thatgamecompany, 2006)
• Flower (thatgamecompany, 2007)
• World of Goo (Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, 2008)
• Crayon Physics Deluxe (Petri Purho, 2009)
• VVVVVV (Terry Cavanagh, 2010)
• Super Meat Boy (Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, 2010)
• Fez (Phil Fish, 2012)

Thurs, Jan 15 Class: Boundary-setting 1 – What Is an “Indie” Game?

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Jesper Juul, Handmade Pixels (2019), Ch 3 “A Selective History of Independent Games” [excerpt, pp 80–106]
• John Sharp, “Independent Games” (2016)
• Maria B. Garda and Paweł Grabarczyk, “Is Every Indie Game Independent? Towards the Concept of Independent Game” (2016)

Recommended further reading:

• Eleanor Rosch, “Principles of Categorization” (1978)

Tues, Jan 20 Class: Platform Focus – Flash

Take-home play assignment:

• Install Flashpoint Infinity, download the class’s Flash game playlist, and play 6 games from it

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Anastasia Salter and John Murray, Flash (2014), Ch 4 “The Web Arcade” & Ch 5 “New Media Art”

Wed, Jan 21 Play Session, in-person at the MADD Center

• Dear Esther (The Chinese Room, 2012 version)
• Gone Home (Fullbright, 2013)
• Proteus (Ed Key and David Kanaga, 2013)

Thurs, Jan 22 Class: I Would Walk 500 Miles

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Aaron A. Reed, John Murray, and Anastasia Salter, “Gone Home? Walking Simulators and the Importance of Slow Gaming” (2020)
• Tom van Nuenen, Traveling through Video Games (2023), Ch 4 “Bigger on the Inside”

Recommended further reading:

• Hugo Montembeault and Maxime Deslongchamps-Gagnon, “The Walking Simulator’s Generic Experiences” (2019)

Tues, Jan 27 Class: Platform Focus – Twine

Take-home play assignment:

• Play 6 Twine games from the collection posted to Canvas

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Anastasia Salter and Stuart Mouthrop, Twining (2021), Ch T-2 “Twine (R)evolutions” [two excerpts]
• Xrafstar (née Porpentine), “Creation Under Capitalism and the Twine Revolution” (2012)
• merritt k, Videogames for Humans (2015), “Introduction”

Wed, Jan 28: NO in-person Play Session at the MADD Center

Due to a confluence of take-home play assignments, there will be no in-person play session this week.

Thurs, Jan 29 Class: Boundary-setting 2 – What Is an Indie “Game”?

Take-home play assignment:

• Choose one additional walking simulator from the list of possibilities

First gameplay experience reflection due, on your walking simulator

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Mia Consalvo and Christopher A. Paul, Real Games (2019), “Introduction” & “Walking Toward a Conclusion”
• Anastasia Salter and Stuart Moulthrop, Twining (2021), Ch T-1 “Twine as Platform” [excerpt, pp 17–26]

Recommended further reading:

• Raph Koster, “A Letter to Leigh” (2013)
• Robert Yang, “A Letter to a Letter’ (2013)

Recommended further reading if following along with Juul’s Handmade Pixels:

• Ch 6 “Who Cares If It’s a Game?”

Tues, Feb 3 Class: The Personal Is the Political

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Anna Anthropy, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters (2012), Ch 1 “The Problem with Videogames,” Ch 5 “The New Videogame,” & Ch 8 “Growing Up”

Recommended further reading if following along with Juul’s Handmade Pixels:

• Ch 3 “A Selective History of Independent Games” [excerpt, pp 106–118]

Wed, Feb 4 Play Session, in-person at the MADD Center

• Dys4ia (Anna Anthropy, 2012)
• LIM (merritt k, 2012)
• Mainichi (Mattie Brice, 2012)
• Problem Attic (Liz Ryerson, 2013)
• Curtain (Llaura “Dreamfeel” McGee, 2014)
• Cibele (Nina Freeman, 2015)
• Radiator 2 (Robert Yang, 2014–2016)
• Cobra Club (Robert Yang, 2015)
• The Tearoom (Robert Yang, 2017)

Thurs, Feb 5 Class: The Personal Is the Political … Is the Mechanical

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Naomi Clark, “What Is Queerness in Games, Anyway?” (2017)
• Liz Ryerson, “The Other Side of Braid” (2015)
• Bo Ruberg, The Queer Games Avant-Garde (2020), Robert Yang and Llaura McGee interviews
• micha cárdenas, Poetic Operations (2022) Ch 4 “The Experience of Shifting” [excerpt]

Recommended further reading:

• Teddy Pozo, “Queer Games after Empathy” (2018)

Fri, Feb 6

Midterm written assignment due

Tues, Feb 10 Class: Boundary-setting 3 – #Gamergate

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Zoë Quinn, “A Game I Had to Make” (2015)
• Leigh Alexander, “‘Gamers’ Don’t Have to Be Your Audience. ‘Gamers’ Are Over” (2014)
• Chris Suellentrop, “Can Video Games Survive? The Disheartening GamerGate Campaign” (2014)
• David Wolinsky, The Hivemind Swarmed (2024), Ch 5 “Stay the Fuck out of It: Fandom and Gatekeeping”

Recommended further reading:

• Melissa Kagen, “Walking Simulators, #Gamer Gate, and the Gender of Wandering” (2017)

Recommended further reading if following along with Juul’s Handmade Pixels:

• Ch 3 “A Selective History of Independent Games” [excerpt, pp 118–124]

Wed, Feb 11 Play Session, in-person at the MADD Center

• Papers, Please (Lucas Pope, 2013)
• Stardew Valley (Eric Barone, 2016)
• Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (Bennett Foddy, 2017)
• Celeste (Maddy Thorson, 2018)

Thurs, Feb 12 Class: The Politics of Enjoyment and the Hegemony of Fun

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Bo Ruberg, Video Games Have Always Been Queer (2019), Ch 6 “No Fun”
• Braxton Soderman, Against Flow (2021), Ch 2 “Flow, Alienation, and the Politics of Enjoyment” [multiple excerpts]

Mon, Feb 16

Final project abstracts due

Tues, Feb 17 Class: Labor and Cozyness

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Paolo Pedercini, “Videogames and the Spirit of Capitalism” (2013)
• Sydney Crowley, “Playing Farmer: At the Intersections of Neo-liberal Capitalism and Ecocriticism in Stardew Valley” (2023)
• Jess Morrissette, “Glory to Arstotzka: Morality, Rationality, and the Iron Cage of Bureaucracy in Papers, Please” (2017)

Recommended further reading:

• Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1930), Pt II Ch 5 “Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism”

Wed, Feb 18: NO in-person Play Session at the MADD Center

Use this free Wednesday afternoon to finish Undertale or OneShot if you haven’t yet

Thurs, Feb 19 Class: Metareference and Parasociality

Required materials divided by group –

• Group 1
  • Play Undertale (Toby Fox, 2015) as take-home-play assignment
  • Read Anastasia Salter, Undertale (2025), Ch 3 “This Is Your Soul” & Ch 4 “But Nobody Came”
• Group 2
  • Play OneShot (Future Cat Games, 2016) as take-home-play assignment
  • Read Theresa Krampe, Metareference in Videogames (2025), Ch 6, “Game-Transcending Forms of Metareference in OneShot”

Second gameplay experience reflection due, on Undertale or OneShot

Recommended further reading for both groups if following along with Juul’s Handmade Pixels:

• Ch 4 “How to Make an Independent Game”

Tues, Feb 24 Class: Indie Economics and the Rise of Boutique Publishers

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Nadav Lipkin, “The Indiepocalypse: The Political-Economy of Independent Game Development Labor in Contemporary Indie Markets” (2019)
• John Vanderhoef, “Brews, Burgers, and Indie Bombast: The Antiestablishment Neoliberalism of Devolver Digital” (2020)
• Felan Parker, “Boutique Indie: Annapurna Interactive and Contemporary Independent Game Development” (2021)

Recommended further reading:

• Anton Savchenko, “Rat Race to the Steam Store” (2015)

Wed, Feb 25 Play Session, in-person at the MADD Center

• Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital, 2019)
• Cult of the Lamb (Massive Monster, 2022)
• Thirsty Suitors (Outerloop Games, 2023)
• Sludge Life 2 (Terri Vellmann and Doseone, 2023)

Thurs, Feb 26 Class: The Labor and Economics of Contemporary Indie Games

Required readings to do prior to this class meeting:

• Brendan Keogh, “From Aggressively Formalised to Intensely In/formalised: Accounting for a Wider Range of Videogame Development Practices” (2019)

Tues, March 3 Class: Presentations

No reading required.

Wed, March 4 Play Session, in-person at the MADD Center

• Castle Crashers (The Behemoth, 2008)
• BIT.TRIP BEAT (Choice Provisions, 2009)
• Johann Sebastian Joust (Douglas Wilson, 2011)
• Towerfall (Maddy Thorson, 2013)
• The Vermin Throne (Damian Sommer, 2013)
• Nidhogg (Mark Essen, 2014)
• Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games, 2015)
• The Past Within (Rusty Lake, 2022)

Thurs, March 5 Class: Presentations

No reading required.

Due date for final project final components TBA; will partially depend on how many groups there are. No earlier than March 10.